In modern vehicle construction, the doors are already fastened to the body shell, at least temporarily, in a final alignment and then lacquered together with the body shell. After the common lacquering of body and doors, the doors must be separated once again from the body for the sake of rational operation, on the one hand when installing the internal equipment of the body, e.g. seats, header, dashboard, pedals, and the like, and on the other hand when outfitting the doors themselves, i.e. when installing equipment parts such as window lifter, door lock, and interior covering. After completing equipping of doors and body, the doors are again attached to the vehicle body in the originally established position.
To this end, many embodiments of removable door hinges have already been developed, as follows:
In one kind of removable door hinges both of the hinge wings are durably connected to the door, door pillar, or door placement part associated with them, and the door hinge is separated by lifting the first hinge wing up from the hinge pin. Embodiments of this kind, though, cannot be used for a door hinge which is structurally united with a door latch.
In another version of removable door hinges, the door hinge is inseparable and merely the first hinge wing is detachably fastened on a door placement part, usually of the door pillar, by means of an intermediate part or fastening element. The intermediate part or fastening element is already durably fastened to the door pillar on the body shell in an aligned position. The accompanying hinge wing can then be detachably connected to the intermediate part or fastening element by means of screw bolts. For this version with separable door hinges, it is also already known, primarily for door hinges equipped with door latches, to provide projection on the intermediate part or fastening element a projection which is aligned perpendicular to the hinge axis. The projection is provided with a receiving bore for a longitudinal section of the hinge pin, which projects above the height of the hinge. With separable door hinges, which are embodied in this manner and equipped with a rotating bar door latch, certain problems arise in terms of assembly and in reliable support of the forces resulting from the door latch, if the hinge wing that carries the catch device of the door latch is formed of a suitably folded blank of sheet metal material and at the same time is the hinge wing that is to be detachably connected to the intermediate part or fastening element.